I have been observing the higher education institutes of India since past nine years (it seems like ninety years though!). The vast majority of them are amazingly consistent in sticking to status quo. In some colleges I feel they gather for an assembly every morning and take the pledge "We pledge to remain today where we were yesterday. Hail stagnation! Down with Darwin!" . But the fact of life is that you cannot ignore what Mr. Darwin has told us. Nothing on this earth can survive for long if it cannot adapt to its changing environment.

The Internet is causing major changes to the education ecosystem. Concepts like Open Courseware (OCWs) and Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have already ignited a big fire (if you are not sure about this, it means you haven't clicked and read the above link). Two things which are adding fuel to that fire are -

1. The concept of RoI (Return on Investment) on higher education expenses. Even middle class of India has started discussing this now. If the customers of Indian colleges start taking decisions based on RoI, then it would be death knell for many of them.

2. Expectations of industry from the new generation of employees. Industry want the new kids to be equipped with 'Problem solving skills', 'On-demand learning skills', 'Online collaboration skills' etc. The fact is that majority of colleges in India either don't understand these words or don't think these are priority.

Its high time to wake up... a revolution is brewing on the Internet! Gear up or RIP!